From The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh must focus on “better homilies, better music and more people” as its six-county territory attempts to reverse a series of “sobering” trends and prepares for a major overhaul in 2018, Bishop David Zubik said Wednesday. “The No. 1 priority has to be, ‘We need to make our worship better,’” Zubik told the Tribune-Review. “Second of all, we need to do the best job that we can to get not only... Read more

An excerpt:  What would the ordination of women deacons mean for the local churches? For one thing, Pope Francis would likely recognize that not every diocese or parish has the same need for and openness to the ministry of deacons generally or women deacons specifically. As the International Theological Commission stated in its report, “the true interest” of the fathers at Vatican II “was in opening a path to the restoration of the permanent diaconate which could be put into... Read more

Many will remember this post from last week. That story caught the eye of a reporter at The Washington Post, who contacted me and wanted to interview Deacon Ed Shoener about his daughter’s death following her battle with bipolar disorder. I put the reporter in touch with Ed, and the story was published this morning. It helps give a fuller context to Katie Shoener’s life, her illness, and the legacy she leaves behind. The story:   Her life was a... Read more

Details:  Most Islamic State recruits know little about Islam or hardly care about religion at all, an AP investigation shows. Another study found that the few with the most religious knowledge among the ranks of the terrorist group do not rush to become martyrs. As many as 70 percent of the recruits were said to have had only “basic”knowledge of Islam – one of the three possible choices on an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) recruitment form, according to a... Read more

From CNS:  Pope Francis has named Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas to head the Vatican’s new office for laity, family and life. The Dublin-born bishop will celebrate his 69th birthday Sept. 2, the day after the new Vatican office officially begins its work. The Dallas Bishop Farrell is the brother of Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Both brothers were ordained to the priesthood for the Legionaries of Christ, but the Dallas bishop... Read more

From The New York Times: John McLaughlin, a former Roman Catholic priest who became an aide to Richard M. Nixon in the White House and parlayed his fierce defense of the president into a television career as host of “The McLaughlin Group,” the long-running Sunday morning program of combative political punditry, died on Tuesday at his home in Washington. He was 89. His death was announced on the program’s Facebook page. The columnist Eleanor Clift, a longtime panelist on the... Read more

By now, you may have seen this commercial that popped up during the Olympics and has become a viral sensation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C6_2qCKMlU Her background: She decided she wanted to become a nun at the age of 14 from the influence of the Visitation Sisters at the all-girls Visitation Academy in St. Louis, Missouri, that her parents put her in after sixth grade, and Marie Dorthy Buder was 23 years old when she followed her first calling in life and became a... Read more

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the great Usain St. Leo Bolt:  On the evening of Sunday, August 14, 2016, famed Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won gold in a characteristically dynamic and seemingly effortless 100-meter performance at his third consecutive Olympics, this time in Rio de Janeiro, making him the first athlete to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100-meter dash. Bolt’s rocketry on this celebrated night follows equally impressive performances in Beijing in 2008 and London... Read more

As a priest at our parish put it Sunday in his announcements: “This year, the Assumption is a Holy Day, but because it’s a Monday, it’s not a Holy Day of Obligation.” The United States bishops revised the rules in the early ’90s: In accord with c. 1246, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops decrees that the holydays of obligation to be observed in the United States are the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God; the solemnity of the... Read more